We've been promised repeatedly that the final season of Lost would include plenty of heartwrenching, surprising deaths, and tonight's episode made good on that promise times three, while throwing a pretty stellar action sequence into the mix as well. The entire episode ran full steam ahead, and while I've complained for weeks about things moving too slowly, I'm not sure I even had enough time to process everything that happened tonight. There were cameos from everything from the Dharma zoo cages to "Catch a Falling Star" to Anthony Cooper to Apollo bars to "I wish you had believed me," and plans were changed and re-arranged so frequently that, when it was all over, it was almost impossible to figure out what would happen next. But maybe that was just because my heart was a little broken.
Questions Answered
How'd Locke get to be so well-adjusted in the alternate universe? Because his dad didn't push him out a window this time-- Locke was paralyzed when he was flying a plane with his dear dad sitting shotgun, and now Locke isn't just a wheelchair, but Anthony Cooper is catatonic in a nursing home. This is pretty much the only reveal in an alternate-universe plotline that goes basically nowhere, beyond having a lot of knowing winks back to the on-island Jack/Locke wars. Not that I minded, given the frenetic pace of everything happening on the island.
Why does SmokeLocke need to collect everyone in order to leave the island? Well, if Jack is right, he doesn't, in one of the most satisfying twists of the season. When the crew arrives at the Ajira plane, hoping for escape, SmokeLocke finds a bomb on the plane that he says was planted by Widmore, hoping to kill them all. As it turns out, that's just what SmokeLocke was planning-- once the whole team manages to commandeer the submarine and take off without SmokeLocke (and poor, abandoned Claire), they realize that SmokeLocke has smuggled a bomb on board with them. He wanted to get them all in one place and kill them so he could escape without all those pesky candidates in the way. That's cold even for you, Smokey!
Is Desmond dead down in the well? Of course not! We don't see the handsome Scotsman in this episode, but Sayid gives Jack that key piece of information before he, well... let me get out my tissues...
Can Sayid be redeemed? Of course. In the grand tradition of tragic Lost heroes, Sayid makes a noble sacrifice, running SmokeLocke's bomb to the furthest reaches of the submarine so that it explodes far away from everyone else, killing himself in the process. It's a lovely and appropriate death for a character who never quite found a purpose once back on the island, but too bad it got overshadowed by what came next.
Will Sun and Jin have a happy ending? Depends on how you define it. When the sub explodes Sun gets caught behind a piece of metal, and Jin, rather than leaving behind his doomed wife, stays with her-- neither of them mentioning the fact that they have a daughter back home, and hey, doesn't she deserve a father? It's really touching to see Jack's decision to leave them, carrying an unconscious Sawyer, realizing once again that he can't save anyone. It's also touching to see Sun and Jin clinging to each other to the last, reunited again. It's just bizarre that no one thought to mention the beautiful daughter they'd been bonding over just a few hours earlier.
New Questions
Is Frank dead? We never saw him escape the sub, but he's a tough old guy. I'm still counting on him to pull through.
Is Kate a goner? She got shot in the shoulder, but then again, it's basically the same gunshot wound Desmond survived last season, and Kate seems pretty unkillable, and if they got rid of her we'd be minus all female characters except crazy Claire. I would have voted to keep Sun over Kate in a heartbeat, but if she's all we've got left, we ladies need her.
Was Jack right, that SmokeLocke wanted them to kill each other? His moment of asking Sawyer to trust him, to let the timer on the bomb go off, was a nice reminder of the "I wish you had believed me" moments down in the hatch in season 2. But it's unclear if Jack was right, or if that bomb would have gone off regardless and SmokeLocke's plan really was pure murder. I like this development of Jack having total faith, but I wish the show had made it a little clearer if Jack was in the right this time.
What happens now that three of the potential candidates are dead? Last we checked, the remaining names on Jacob's list were Reyes, Shephard, Jarrah, Ford and Kwon, and now two of them are gone. It's unclear how much this list will matter in the end, since SmokeLocke's interest in it seemed to mostly be a front to get all these guys together for easier murdering. But at the very least, Sawyer's going to be upset to hear that the order has been upset.
What in the world are they going to do now? Even Jack seems out of ideas, and all he wants to do is stay on the island. With SmokeLocke on their tail they'll need to come up with answers quickly.
Where We Go From Here
Bring back Desmond, Miles, Ben and Richard. Not just because we have significantly fewer characters now, but because they're the only remaining dangling threads, and it felt so good to have everyone else in one place at last. Plus, Richard's plan to blow up the Ajira doesn't seem all that relevant any more. He can help the rest of the Losties figure out a Plan B.
Work with the Sawyer/Jack dynamic. It's been interesting to watch in the last few episodes as the two of them have quietly set aside their differences, working together because they know there are much bigger fish to try. Jack seems destined for the big hero arc, and Sawyer may very well be headed for a tragic death, but I hope Sawyer gets to be a major part of the action as the series keeps concluding.
Don't save the alternate universe resolution for the last episode. We've seen many, many instances by now of characters recognizing each other, and Jack seems to be putting it together that Oceanic 815 unites them all in some odd way. Clearly there's a big shift that's about to happen, but I hope it doesn't happen in the last episode. We'll need those entire last few hours to see these characters wrap up in one piece, and knowing how the larger metaphysical questions fit together ahead of time will make that much easier to process.
Don't cop out and reverse Sun, Jin and Sayid's deaths. No, I'm not happy they're dead, and I know how enjoyable it's been to see on-island deaths like Charlie's reversed in the alternate universe. But their deaths on the submarine were heartbreaking and sincere, and to have it all turned around for a happy ending would feel like a major cheat.
